Suzuki’s top engineer, Takashi Nakayama, won’t say if the next Suzuki Swift will come to the U.S., but he did hint that the car is being developed to meet U.S. crash and emissions regulations, saying it is “technically possible” to meet the regs with the next car, due out in 2011.

American Suzuki needs the Swift bad. Right now the company is concentrating on getting the mid-size Kizashi launched in December. But once that hoopla dies down, Suzuki will still have only four main vehicles in its lineup, the SX4 hatchback, SX4 sedan, Kizashi, and Grand Vitara. Suzuki also sells a version of the Nissan Frontier called Equator, but in tiny volumes. Meanwhile, the current Swift sells briskly in Japan and Europe and is a hoot to drive, as our brief encounters with it prove. It’s currently the best product in the company’s lineup, but at the time Suzuki decided not to bring it to the U.S., fuel prices were low and buyers were swarming to trucks. In light of $4.50/gallon gasoline that came later, Suzuki admits it was a mistake. Let’s hope they correct it this time around.